Reply #37: I lived in Spain for several years, and moved back about 10 years ago...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

In Spain, women tend to marry at older ages than here. Never figured out why, but Spanish women do find it odd that American women were/are so eager to jump into marriage so much earlier than they do.

Early marriage limits a woman's possibilities, but nothing like pregnancy does. Pregnancy in the very young effectively limits that girl/woman's possibilities. It puts a chain around the girl/woman's neck, and everything becomes much more difficult, requires more planning, requires more money, demands more attention, less sleep, more effort, and many things are simply not doable. She shortens her youth, and propels herself into a life she probably had romanticized, and suddenly finds that it's not quite what she had bargained for.

Kids are very real. They're not dolls that cry when you pick them up, then when you put them in the doll crib they fall asleep for the next 24 hours. They require a great chunk of a girl/woman's life.